Brussels, 17/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the European Commission approved a financial allocation of EUR 146.93 million to combat transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) and other animal diseases in the EU and the future Member States next year. Out of this amount, EUR 92.64 million will be used for the surveillance and eradication of BSE and scrapie in Member States, candidate countries and acceding countries, and EUR 54.29 million will be intended for the fight against other epizootic diseases, such as brucellosis or rabies, and for the prevention of zoonoses.
Programmes for BSE and scrapie surveillance and eradication: The maximum amount of the EU's financial participation for TSE surveillance amounts to EUR 76.9 million, of which 21.7 million is for France, 15.6 million for Germany, 7.7 million for the United Kingdom, 6.2 million for Italy, 5.3 million for Ireland, and 4.8 million for Spain. The EU's contribution for combating scrapie, which amounts to EUR 15.6 million, will mainly benefit the United Kingdom (EUR 7.4 million), Italy (EUR 3.2 million) and France (EUR 1.1 million).
The Commission recalls in this context that all cattle aged over 30 months and intended for human consumption, all cattle that dies on the farm and cattle of over 24 months slaughtered as an emergency measure, as well as all suspected animals whatever their age, must undergo a BSE screening test. In 2004, around ten million animals will undergo BSE screening, which is cofinanced by the European Union. Furthermore, random post mortem TSE testing of sheep and goats over 18 months in the categories of healthy animals at slaughter and fallen stock has been obligatory since 2002. In total, about 350,000 tests were done on these animals in the EU last year.
Since 1 October this year, new rules concerning measures for the eradication of scrapie have been in place. These require culling and genotyping of animals in infected flocks. In addition, from 1 January 2004, breeding programmes for resistance to TSEs in sheep are to be implemented.
Animal disease eradication programmes: The Commission has approved 68 programmes aimed at eradicating the ten main epizootic diseases. From a total budget of EUR 51.89 million, 29 million will be used to combat brucellosis: 14.1 million for brucellosis in sheep and goats (including 6.5 million for Spain and 3.5 million for Italy), and 14.9 million for brucellosis in cattle (5 million for Ireland, 4 million for Spain and 2 million for the United Kingdom). EUR 14.4 million will be allocated to combating tuberculosis in cattle (5 million for Spain, 4.5 million for Ireland and 2 million for the United Kingdom), and 4.4 million will be used for combating rabies, especially in Poland (1.8 million), Germany (EUR 800,000), the Czech Republic (EUR 650,000) and the Slovak Republic (400,000).
The Commission also adopted programmes aimed at preventing zoonoses: EUR 2.4 million will make it possible to fight against salmonella in five Member States and in two candidate states: EUR 700,000 for France, EUR 400,000 for the Netherlands, Lithuania and the Slovak Republic, EUR 260,000 for Denmark, EUR 150,000 for Austria and EUR 90,000 for Ireland.